When Sylvia Came To Town. October 1999

When Sylvia Rivera our True Shero of the Revolutionary LGBT peoples came to town.
Letters to the editor began appearing in the LGBT news magazine the Metroline condemning one of our comrades Mucha Mucha Placer and also drag queens in general. Mucha as we fondly refer to her as is revolutionary drag queen, co-chair of the Ct. Coalition and damn hard worker for LGBT civil rights. A flurry of letter in support of Ms Placer and drag queens responded. We felt at this time it was the same type of folks, white comfortable class gay men and feminist lesbians who were leading this charge as they had so many times in the past. Members of The Ct. Stonewall Foundation also participated in responding to this hit against the drag community and transgender folks and decided to at their next conference bring Sylvia Rivera to town for a key note speaking engagement. Arrangement were made that the conference was to be held in October right before the opening of the Foundations exhibition, Challenging and Changing America. The Struggle for LGBT Civil Rights. Richard Nelson one of the Foundations educational program directors gave the opening speech welcoming Ms. Rivera to Hartford and speaking out against the denouncing of Ms. Placer, the drag community and our trans sisters and brothers. The conference was attended by over 100 people who applauded Mr. Nelson and Ms. Rivera through out their talks. We will always remember Ms Rivera and thank her for fighting the good fight for all of us. We miss you Sylvia but carrying on your work whenever and wherever we can and need to.

As we said at that time, no one is going to take ourstories from us or denounce our hardworking comrades or leaders in the fight for liberation of all. We salute Sylvia and all of our foremothers and fathers, we say thank you and we shall always cherish your memories. Here is the video of the Ct. Stonewall Foundation welcoming Sylvia to town and her talk to us that day.